Loopbound

This is a very preliminary review as the game is in early access and I have only played a couple of hours so far. However, I am currently very excited about this game and looking forward to see more of it and what it grows into. If you have played and enjoyed games like Increlution or Terraformental this game is right up your alley. It has similar mechanics but with a bit more polish and (so far) a very interesting story. I find the automation system to be just about perfect. In other similar games (Increlution for example) you had to do too many steps manually before you could automate the process. This caused the repeated early game to turn into a slog at times. So far Loopbound has done an excellent job of pacing the automation upgrades so that I feel involved in the game but not bogged down. I am also very intrigued by the non-linear exploration opportunities. This is very exciting as it allows for a genuine sense of discovery as well as opportunities for optimization later once more of the game has been revealed. Since this is a preliminary review I plan to update it as I spend more time with the game. Currently, I only have 1 criticism of the game. I am playing on a widescreen monitor with a lot of unused space. It would be nice if the Tasks screen and the Chronicles screen could be displayed at the same time. However, this is a minor nitpick.

Any time you go to a new area, you start over from scratch. It doesn't feel like a game, but a bunch of completely disjointed copies of the same game. Absolutely 100% the most frustrating and unsatisfying game I have ever played. 1/5 - Please, just stop. The games don't need to be prolonged unnecessarily. They need to be fun. You know, a GAME. I'm a lot further into it. It does get better, but it takes a good while to reach that point, and even then it is too little too late. Giving this game a +1 point boost. I still don't recommend it as it is, but it is in early access and has potential.

I am loving this game. It gives me all the same dopamine hits as Increlution with some interesting twists. The developer is very engaged with the players and most bugs/issues/QoL being fixed in just a few hours. About 20-30 hours of playtime in the EA release, definitely worth the price.

Slow and tedious. A few hours in and no decision has been to reach just a lot of waiting around to push the next button. The game is way too slow early on to be interesting. Most of the hours are because there so much pointless waiting you just get distracted doing anything else waiting on a food collection to complete 50 times to actually get full.

The game is still in Early Access, but it already has enough content for me to give it a positive review. If you've played games like Increlution or Terraformental, you'll probably like this game as well. The basics are the same, gather resources and explore, but it quickly puts its own spin on it. There are multiple areas, each with its own mechanics. The game gives you multiple choices in the order you explore them. Automation unlocks at a decent pace and is also easy to configure. Some aspects of the game still feel a bit rough (temporal essence, having to repeat earlier areas), which is to be expected for Early Access. The developer has been active in the community and quick to fix bugs so far. Overall, I'd recommend the game to people who like incremental time-loop games.

If you liked Increlution, you should definitely try this game. At first glance, it feels like more of the same, but as soon as you progress a bit, you can see it has new mechanics, some of them very interesting. Specifically, the idea of having such independent zones wasn't something I liked at first, but after completing it, I think it's a very good decision. For instance, it allows you to go straight to zones where you have active gameplay without having to go through everything before it. And with a bit of optimization, you can make the runs through these already completed zones considerably faster. This, along with fluidity, is what makes it a good design in my opinion, even though I wasn't a fan at first. I love the gray zone; is definitely worth trying. (If you are tired of the yellow or green one, you should go to this zone first). One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the quality of the game; it's very well made and has only had a few minor bugs. As for QoL, it still has several things to polish, but the dev is really on top of the requests being made and is actively adding them to the game. It's a shame there is only about 30 hours of content, though I think it has quite a bit of replay value to try different paths and optimize the initial run a bit.

Thank for making this game. Increlution is one of my all time favorite and this game have potential to be better than that. However it suffer the same problem as game of this type and that is too much waiting time between run and too linear in early game. My suggestion is 1. Fluidity is good idea but I think it should work with all world after unlock included the world the not complete yet. This should reduce wait time between run significantly. 2. Extra action that reward risky play. For example in green world, collect 8 item without using them should unlock new crafting item that very powerful.

Surprisingly well-done automation incremental title. Still in development, but a lot of a decent amount of content for the price point. Looking forward to it's success. Great UI and UX.

Lost my save after restarting my computer.